Other forms: enlightened, enlightening, enlightens
To enlighten is to give somebody understanding of something. Enlighten me, enlighten the public, an enlightening talk.
Enlighten me is often said with an edge, meaning explain yourself. The Enlightenment, capitalised, is the eighteenth-century intellectual movement built on reason and evidence, and enlightened is used of any view ahead of its time — enlightened self-interest, an enlightened employer. In Buddhism, enlightenment is the goal, which is a quite different idea reached by the same metaphor of light.
1verbenlightenTo give somebody understanding of something.
“Could you enlighten me about how this machine works?”
enlighten is a giving of understanding.
Also accepted in games: acquaint
The word is en- plus lighten, from Old English leoht, light. Every sense is the same metaphor of illumination, which nearly every language uses for understanding and none can explain.
Old English
inlīhtan
Middle English
enlightenen
English, today
enlighten
Built from
Formerly also inlighten, from Middle English enlightenen, inlightnen, a hybrid formed from inlighten (“to enlighten, illuminate”), from Old English inlīhtan, onlīhtan, enlīhtan (“to enlighten, illuminate, give light to, give sight to”) and lightnen (“to enlighten, illuminate”) (equivalent to light + en). Cognate with Dutch inlichten (“to enlighten, inform”), Old High German inliuhten (“to enlighten, illuminate”), Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌷𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (“to enlighten, illuminate”). More at inlight, -en.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA